The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Historic Environment Record
 

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Enclosure, East of Tonmawr

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 00776w
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Margam
Unitary authority : Neath Port Talbot
NGR : SS83098617
Site Type (preferred type first) : Iron Age Enclosure
Status : Scheduled Monument

Summary :
The site is a ring, about 0.3ha, at 240m above OD. There is a single rampart on the W, 8.5-10m wide, 0.5 m high, and elsewhere is a scarp. On the NW, is also a ditch, and the entrance is on the SW. There are no internal structures.

Description :
The site lies at 240m above OD, on Ton Mawr, on a broad spur W of Cwm Kenfig, consisting of an irregular ring between 60-70m in diameter, covering an area about 0.3ha. It is defended by a single rampart on the W about 8.5 to 10m wide, 0.5 meter high, and elsewhere a scarp 4 to 6.5m wide and about 0.8m high except on the SE where it reaches nearly 2m in height. On the NW, there is also a shallow outer ditch 8 to 12m wide. The entrance is a simple gap on the SW, about 2m wide. There are no internal structures such as hut circles (RCAHMW).

According to a Cadw field visit report (1986), the ditch does in fact appear as a scarp even on the downhill side. On the south-west, the detail of the entrance is confused by a field boundary. There must have originally been some sort of gap, but this has been obscured.

Ton Mawr. The site lies at 240m OD on a broad spur W of Cwm Kenfig about 4km N of Pyle on ground falling gently to the SE. A rather irregular ring varying from 60 to 70m diameter, area about 0.3ha, single rampart consisting of a bank 8.5 to 10m wide half a metre high internally and up to a metre externally. A scarp also exists, 4 to 6.5m wide and about 0.8m high except on the SE where it reaches nearly 2m in height owing to the fall of the ground. Round the NW half there is also an outer ditch 8 to 12m wide and about half a metre deep; the outward turn of its counterscarp on the SW suggests that it never extended round the remainder of the earthwork. The entrance a simple gap on the SW side now less than 2m wide. There are no internal structures.
The scheduled area was extended in 2002 to include a recently identified outer enclosure defined by a low earthwork bank and ditch. (Wiggins and Evans 2005)

Sources :
Savory H.N. & Nash-Williams V.E. , 1949 , List of Hill-Forts and other Earthworks , The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies : XIII pt.3 : 157-
Wiggins, H and Evans, E , 2005 , Prehistoric defended enclosures in Glamorgan with recommendations for fieldwork
01/Desc Text/Cadw/ Full Management Report/2006/ Copy in further information file
Helen Burnham, CADW, 1986,Scheduled Welsh Historic Monuments, visit text (sam GM090, last visited in 2006)
RCAHMW, 1976, An Inventory of The Ancient Monuments In Glamorgan, I, ii, p33 (num.656)

Events :
E001455 : Prehistoric defended enclosures in Glamorgan (year : 2005)
E002643 : Wind Farm, Mynydd Margam, Port Talbot (year : 2001)
E007771 : Newland Farm, Margam, Neath Port Talbot (year : 2013)
E008569 : Land of the A48, Pyle, Bridgend (year : 2018)
E008576 : Land of the A48, Pyle, Bridgend (year : 2018)

Related records
National Monuments Record NPRN 301338 http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/301338/details

Compiled date :


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